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Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles

During human walking, there exists a functional neural coupling between arms and legs, and between cervical and lumbosacral pattern generators. Here, we present a novel approach for associating the electromyographic (EMG) activity from upper limb muscles with leg kinematics. Our methodology takes ad...

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Autores principales: La Scaleia, Valentina, Sylos-Labini, Francesca, Hoellinger, Thomas, Wang, Letian, Cheron, Guy, Lacquaniti, Francesco, Ivanenko, Yuri P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4202724/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25368569
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00838
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author La Scaleia, Valentina
Sylos-Labini, Francesca
Hoellinger, Thomas
Wang, Letian
Cheron, Guy
Lacquaniti, Francesco
Ivanenko, Yuri P.
author_facet La Scaleia, Valentina
Sylos-Labini, Francesca
Hoellinger, Thomas
Wang, Letian
Cheron, Guy
Lacquaniti, Francesco
Ivanenko, Yuri P.
author_sort La Scaleia, Valentina
collection PubMed
description During human walking, there exists a functional neural coupling between arms and legs, and between cervical and lumbosacral pattern generators. Here, we present a novel approach for associating the electromyographic (EMG) activity from upper limb muscles with leg kinematics. Our methodology takes advantage of the high involvement of shoulder muscles in most locomotor-related movements and of the natural co-ordination between arms and legs. Nine healthy subjects were asked to walk at different constant and variable speeds (3–5 km/h), while EMG activity of shoulder (deltoid) muscles and the kinematics of walking were recorded. To ensure a high level of EMG activity in deltoid, the subjects performed slightly larger arm swinging than they usually do. The temporal structure of the burst-like EMG activity was used to predict the spatiotemporal kinematic pattern of the forthcoming step. A comparison of actual and predicted stride leg kinematics showed a high degree of correspondence (r > 0.9). This algorithm has been also implemented in pilot experiments for controlling avatar walking in a virtual reality setup and an exoskeleton during over-ground stepping. The proposed approach may have important implications for the design of human–machine interfaces and neuroprosthetic technologies such as those of assistive lower limb exoskeletons.
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spelling pubmed-42027242014-11-03 Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles La Scaleia, Valentina Sylos-Labini, Francesca Hoellinger, Thomas Wang, Letian Cheron, Guy Lacquaniti, Francesco Ivanenko, Yuri P. Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience During human walking, there exists a functional neural coupling between arms and legs, and between cervical and lumbosacral pattern generators. Here, we present a novel approach for associating the electromyographic (EMG) activity from upper limb muscles with leg kinematics. Our methodology takes advantage of the high involvement of shoulder muscles in most locomotor-related movements and of the natural co-ordination between arms and legs. Nine healthy subjects were asked to walk at different constant and variable speeds (3–5 km/h), while EMG activity of shoulder (deltoid) muscles and the kinematics of walking were recorded. To ensure a high level of EMG activity in deltoid, the subjects performed slightly larger arm swinging than they usually do. The temporal structure of the burst-like EMG activity was used to predict the spatiotemporal kinematic pattern of the forthcoming step. A comparison of actual and predicted stride leg kinematics showed a high degree of correspondence (r > 0.9). This algorithm has been also implemented in pilot experiments for controlling avatar walking in a virtual reality setup and an exoskeleton during over-ground stepping. The proposed approach may have important implications for the design of human–machine interfaces and neuroprosthetic technologies such as those of assistive lower limb exoskeletons. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-10-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4202724/ /pubmed/25368569 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00838 Text en Copyright © 2014 La Scaleia, Sylos-Labini, Hoellinger, Wang, Cheron, Lacquaniti and Ivanenko. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
La Scaleia, Valentina
Sylos-Labini, Francesca
Hoellinger, Thomas
Wang, Letian
Cheron, Guy
Lacquaniti, Francesco
Ivanenko, Yuri P.
Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles
title Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles
title_full Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles
title_fullStr Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles
title_full_unstemmed Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles
title_short Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles
title_sort control of leg movements driven by emg activity of shoulder muscles
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4202724/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25368569
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00838
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